Rogue One

An expanding universe

Thoughts on the growth of the Star Wars franchise, and how Disney is getting it right

The trouble with many Star Wars fans is that they love the films too much. In 1999 I fell into that trap when I went to see Episode I, and naively thought that it would be as good as or better than the original trilogy of films (IV – VI).

Instead I realised that George had part-baked a turkey. It was a film aimed at ten year olds. Whilst much of my behaviour in my thirties was akin to a primary school child, I wanted more. I wanted something that appealed to me, and returned me to the magic of my childhood.

How could anybody have pulled off this alchemy for a whole generation? Certainly George Lucas did not. The founder of the dynasty was now someone whose reputation was rather tarnished. It was George’s baby, and he tried too hard, and we got gungans.

The ‘prequel’ trilogy (which, to the uninitiated, filled in the story before the films, and explained why the first one to appear was called ‘Episode IV’) rumbled on, successful at the box office but disappointing the core market of obsessives – the people who had been little boys in the seventies, and wanted to return to that happy place.

The only analogy I can use to describe how I felt is a sporting one. My other obsession in childhood was football, and I had the good fortune to inherit a love of Liverpool FC from my parents. The first Star Wars film came out in 1977, the same year as Liverpool won their first European Cup. Star Wars films followed in 1980 and 1983, and European Cups followed in 1978, 1981 and 1984. You can see how golden my childhood was. When Star Wars Episode I came out in 1999 and was as flat as a pancake, it felt like waking from a dream and finding that all the European Cups had been somehow erased from history.

I could go into extensive detail about why the 1999 film fell flat, but it would fill many pages and be fun for nobody, even me. I’ll just say that Ewan McGregor trying to be a young Alec Guinness didn’t work, and Liam Neeson wasn’t a convincing top Jedi.

The franchise rumbled on, fuelled by huge marketing, and was quite a success. I enjoyed the films, my wife bought them all on DVD, and we watch them occasionally. I like the films, but I don’t love them. The great denouement at the end of Episode III, which creates a bridge to the immortal Episode IV of 1977, was well done and more or less how I had imagined it when I was a small boy.

And that was it. Job done, six films completed, and now I could buy a complete box-set, safe in the knowledge that ‘the Saga’ was complete.

Enter Disney.

In 2012 the Disney Company bought the franchise for $4 billion. The first announcement was that there would be new films, set after the end of Episode VI (’The Return of the Jedi’), and there was a very real sense that Disney would be pulling out all the stops to make a return on their huge investment.

I had a very bad feeling about this.

How could Disney, famous for their safe but brilliant offending-nobody children’s films, possibly take on the weight of expectation and succeed where even the writer of the original film had failed? This was the company who had given the world ‘The Cat from Outer Space’.

I was one of the more sceptical. I really thought that they would bomb.

What I had neglected to understand is the way that Disney operate. They have so many dollars to throw at a project that it is unlikely not to be a success. They get the best people they can, they use the best filmmakers they can find, and they understand more than anyone else how magical and important certain films are to certain people. There must have been some really careful reflection before script writing began on the new Star Wars films began. As far as I am concerned they have got it very, very right.

The masterstroke was securing the services of Kathleen Kennedy to run Lucasfilm. Lucasfilm was what Disney bought from George Lucas, and it needed a steady hand at the helm. Kathleen Kennedy was behind the success of ET and Jurassic Park, knew George, but more importantly knew what the fans needed. She got Lawrence Kasdan, who had written the script for Episode VI in 1983, on board to write for Episode VII. To oversee the new project, she approached JJ Abrams, a Star Wars obsessive whom she knew was not going to mess it all up.

The result, of course, was Episode VII, ‘The Force Awakens’. It’s a pretty good film. It is no turkey. It does everything that the discerning obsessive might ask for. It has ballsy new characters, and because of Disney dollars managed to secure the original three actors from the first trilogy. It mirrors the plot of the original film of 1977 rather too closely for my liking, but it returned the joy and excitement with interest. It was just what I had been waiting for. Disney did what it is now well known for doing – it got the right people, spent the money, and turned a huge profit. On social media I sensed a whole generation of obsessives grudgingly accept Episode VII as a bona fide Star Wars film. They turned off their pac-man, drained the last of their full-sugar coke, and started to pay attention again.

Now it gets really interesting. With the rights to use the brand how they see fit, Disney are obviously going to be smart in how they get value for money. The newest film stands alone, fitting into the chronology of the nine main films, but with different characters. It’s a very clever move indeed. How to solve the problem of ageing? You develop films with the same backdrop, but with new characters. Just as all the Bond films exist in a strange super-cool world of gadgets and cocktails, but the faces change; so now all Star Wars films exist with the same hardware of space ships and aliens, but different heroes.

Sometimes it’s a problem that seems unsurmountable. For example, for the new film ‘Rogue One’ to work, a character called Grand Moff Tarkin needs to step into the action. In 1977 he was brilliantly portrayed by Hammer Horror actor Peter Cushing. Peter was born in 1913, so would be 103 if alive today. After a long and distinguished career, he passed away in 1994.

That is not a problem for Disney. They took loads of existing footage of him, put it all into a computer, and sort of melded his face onto another actor. The result is rather startling. The character is sinister enough to begin with. For adults who know that Peter Cushing is no longer with us, it is rather like watching a convincing ghost on screen.

People have been very critical of it, and say it looks like a cartoon character. I think there needs to be some suspension of belief, and you just have to let your imagination take you away. Be a child again, believe in the film.

It is another step on the road towards nothing being impossible on film anymore – certainly with the power of the Disney dollars behind it.

The new film, called ‘Rogue One – A Star Wars Story’ is worth a careful look. In a very subtle nod to the hard-core fans, the action ends moments before the start of the original Star Wars film from 1977. It plays with the memory of those who saw the first film as children, and adds substance to all our imaginings. It’s clever. It ticks all the boxes. Disney have done their homework thoroughly, and the care that they have taken means that the future of Star Wars is secure.

Finally, an observation for the fanatics out there. Here is my list, in order of preference:

IV, VII, V, Rogue One, III, VI, II, I.

If you know what that means, you now have my permission to get very cross and disagree with me most vehemently.